Insights into baby's development

This is a great article from Psychology Today. It is talking about infant brain development and how our typical thinking is wrong. What I liked most about it was how it emphasized that cognitive development is often dependent on building a strong emotional relationship.


I am guilty of wanting to teach my son early...words, reading, colors, numbers, etc...but research is now showing that pushing your child to learn these things too early actually hinders their ability to learn. It forces them to use lower-level brain functioning (basically memorizing) rather than helping develop higher-level brain structures that will be used for learning later on. The way we can develop these higher-level brain functions is through our relationship...through our attachment.


I pulled out some quotes that I thought were powerful"


"Emotional development is not just the foundation for important capacities such as intimacy and trust," says Stanley Greenspan, clinical professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at George Washington University Medical School and author of the new comprehensive book Building Healthy Minds. "It is also the foundation of intelligence and a wide variety of cognitive skills.


"The mother's emotionally expressive face is, by far, the most potent visual stimulus in the infant's environment," points out UCLA's Alan Schore... "We are talking less about what the mother is doing to the baby and more about how the mother is being with the baby and how the baby is learning to be with the mother..."


...future cognitive development depends not on the cognitive stimulation of flashcards and videos, but on the attuned, dynamic and emotional interactions between parent and child.


I also found this tidbit interesting...
As a proponent of attachment, I am very focused on attunement (this article gives a good explanation of attunement as well!). It was great for me to be able to read that periods of misattunement are okay, and even beneficial to baby...as long as there is a recovery and a return to attunement. I see this along the lines of attachment rupture and repair, which I agree is helpful for emotional growth because it fosters resilience. 


Click here for the article.


Here are some resources recommended by the writer of the article:

• The Irreducible Needs of Children: What Every Child Must Have to Grow, Learn and Flourish, T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., and Stanley Greenspan, M.D. (Perseus Books, 2000)

• Building Healthy Minds, Stanley Greenspan, M.D. (Perseus Books, 1999).